Firstly, I'd like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you from myself and the staff here at the Guild. Additionally, I hope you had a good Christmas. I would have posted on the day itself, but I was otherwise indisposed with a slight cough. Anyway, that's not why I'm spamming your news feed today. Instead, I'm here to get your attention about Ares.
If you're a Yuri's Revenge modder, chances are you know what Ares is. For those of you that do not, it's the spiritual successor to the old RockPatch project (which spawned NPatch as a byproduct). It aims to extend and enhance possibilities open to modders when dealing with the YR engine, using a completely new (and comparatively safer) method of "injecting" code from a DLL file, rather than messily painting code onto the EXE like RockPatch/NPatch. Already, it has achieved new levels of stability and customisation that neither the RockPatch nor NPatch could ever have hoped for.
However, as it stands, Ares is in trouble. At present, the project works around a continuous cycle of testing and updating builds. However, community involvement and interest has dwindled to the point where keeping the project going is becoming more of an existential question than a certainty.
Therefore, the developers have decided to advertise several specific job positions on the Ares team to keep this project alive. Simply put, without community help, the chances of there being a new Ares release past version 0.2 are zero to none. That means the chances of your new and improved superweapons - gone. Multiple IFVs - gone. More than two weapons, and improved an targeting system - gone.
Trust me, if you want to develop a mod on Ares (and in today's modding climate, it's definitely recommended over RockPatch and NPatch), it's in your best interests to take a look.
The positions advertised are:
- 5 Active Testers
- Unless the Ares developers have a team of at least five active testers, development cannot continue. This basically involves checking, confirming (or not confirming), and providing feedback on bugs and issues raised. All bugs and issues raised. Not just the ones you're interested in.
- 1 Documentation Maintainer
- Exactly what it says on the tin. Keep the user manual and readme up to date. If a new feature is developed, put it in there. Elaborate on it. Tell modders how they can use it.
- 1 User Support Agent
- Technical Support. Hang around the forums, and if someone's having issues with Ares, or they don't know what they're doing, help them.
- 1 Project Ambassador (PR guy)
- If you've ever met our own brilliant Gen.Kenobi here at the Guild, this is basically what the Ares developers are looking for. Someone enthusiatic to go out and advertise the project to all and sundry, and answer any queries on it if the need arises.
- 1 Promo Material Creator
- Basically, make shiny looking screenshots and videos to help advertise Ares.
Yes, this sounds like a lot, but a lot is what is needed to keep this project afloat. Ares represents a huge step for YR modders throughout the community, and its demise would contribute greatly to the already obvious stagnation and slow rot among the TFD modding community.
I've only given a brief summary of each of the above positions, so I would recommend you read Renegade's topic on Renegade Projects' Forums.
If you're interested, I would recommend you register on RenProj, and send me a PM (I still am under my old name of "Nighthawk200" there). Alternatively, you can PM me here. However, if you want to work with Ares, you'll need to register on RenProj at some point anyway.
Give it a shot.
Nighthawk.
C&C Guild Leader / Ares Project Manager.
